Monday, February 27, 2006

I spent this morning at the massage clinic. Mondays are really slow, but I was there to answer phones and maybe work some walk-ins into my completely empty schedule!

It is also tax time, so I got this bee under my bonnet that if I took DH's lap top to work with me, I could sit there at the front desk and enter all my bank statements into quicken. I got all the way up to December's statement entered in......but when I got to December, it said...page 1 of 2....only there was NO page 2! And since everything I do is on debit card, I had to call the bank and have them send a copy before I can go any farther. Still, I feel pretty proud of myself for getting that far in one day. I figure I would have sat here and spent all day doing it, at least I could have been there and doing it while answering phones and maybe working in a walk in (of which there were none...as I said..monday is a SLOW day!)I came home and laid down with some purry furries for "just a few minutes" and woke up when the phone rang a bit over an hour later. I was out cold! All that tax work wears on a body, you know? It was the dentist's receptionist on the phone. Remember my birthday 2-for-1 root canal special? Tomorrow is the day I go to get the one crown filled where they did the root canal for it, and get started on the crown work for the one that was the 'bonus' tooth.These are pics of the clinic where I am working. We are in the corner of an L shaped plaza..there are 4 massage rooms and a reception area, and a big back room that is like the break room with a sofa, microwave, fridge, desk if you want to sit and do paper work, etc....The rooms are hard to get pics of, they are pretty compact! But this will give you an idea of the room I'm sharing with Lori....

Sunday, February 26, 2006

It's really fun when people know you are on the look out for maverick quilts...I get links sent from everyone! This one was sent by one of our ring loyal reader/lurkers :c)

This maverick medallion quilt is civil war era and was spotted on ebay! I'm not sure if it sold or not, and I don't have the item number, I just saved the pics for my "fun to look at" file! I love how deep the chocolates are, and the bright vibrant double pink...nothing subtle about that!

Don't these quilts just make you wonder about the maker....using all she had to work with, making things fit (or not!!) by making do! I love how the center is so hodge-podge and chaotic, but the setting completely calms it down, like ripples spreading out in a pond....chaos in the middle, organization all the way to the outside edges! It's just a top, not quilted...so I wonder if it has issues of not laying very flat. The fabrics in it are so wonderful!

Saturday, February 25, 2006

I've visited a couple blogs that have shown a darling tree that would be great made from leader-ender squares! I've wanted to do a tree quilt for a long time, but the thought of all those 1/2 sq triangles just did not sound appealing to me, no matter how much I liked the look of the trees when they were done.

I looked all over for a tree pattern that would work with my 2" squares....block base had nothing, my old trusty "It's Okay If You Sit On My Quilt" book by Mary Ellen Hopkins had some ideas, and with a few modifications and thanks to EQ5 I have drafted up the scrappy leader-ender tree! Thanks to those other quilters who posted the block in their blogs too...great for inspiration!

If anyone wants the EQ5 file, you can download it here. You do need EQ5 to use this pattern.

The trunk portion of the tree can be easiliy paper pieced if desired, and then the tree top parts added on around the pieces that make the tree trunk section. And I'm thinking that it would be cute using my 1.5" leader ender squares too...then the block would only be 8" finished. Hmmmmm! So many possibilities! If made with the 2" leader ender squares it will finish at 12".Here is a pic of what a layout might look like. You can also set it without sashings with plain alternate blocks that would give you a great place for quilting designs.

Here is one with plain alternate squares on point:

I've been to Sam's club this morning...why is it that you find yourself running out of laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, and cat food all at the same time? All stocked up now, ready to get back to sewing with the new leader-ender project on the side. The strippy bars that were my last leader-ender project are all ready to be set together as soon as I find a lay out I like!

Laurie Ann sent a comment about the mention of the poodle quilt that I was quilting for a customer. She asked: "Bonnie - could you please post a picture of the poodle quilt? I am making a poodle quilt for our local poodle rescue group and would love to see the one you have."

Ann told me, when she sent the pictures, that the pattern is Judy Mathieson's "Dog Star" from her Mariner's Compass book. And I have to mention that Ann pieced this whole top by HAND...even setting the blocks together and adding the borders...all by hand!

I hope this gives Laurie some ideas. The little printed poodle panels (the black and white outlined poodles) were a Michael Miller fabric panel that is out of print, but you still might be able to search for it on line somewhere.

I had a great time yesterday picking my friend up from her hotel and treating her to dinner at a great mexican place nearby. Then we came over to my house and I showed her my digs and we visted before I took her back to her hotel. It was so great to see her!Today I'm on call again for the massage clinic....and plan to work on more of Elizabeth's basket blocks! I'm feeling pretty lazy, it's been several long days this week....

Friday, February 24, 2006

Well, I WAS sewing...but remember I said I was "on call" today in case I was needed at the clinic? They called a bit ago and I have a client at 4pm. Which is going to work really well because I also have a friend who is in the process of driving down from Ohio with her hubby to spend a week on St Simons Island, GA.

I had WANTED to go spend some time with her there and retreat (they have a darling quilt shop on the island) but this position came open at the massage clinic, and you all know where my life has gone...no island retreating for me next week! :c(

That's okay though! I still get to see Kat! Guess where she just called me from?? MARY JO'S in Gastonia, NC! The nerve! Oh, I wish I could have gone shopping with her there, it is such a fun place! But...I am still trying to be good with the purchases, and she will head down through Columbia on her way to St Simons island, and we can meet for dinner after my 4pm client is done! :c)

Here is a pic of the embroidered teacup blocks....all trimmed and sashed, and I have 6 of the basket blocks done. I need 13 total. I think it is coming along really well, and maybe I can work on it some more tomorrow.....(on call for tomorrow too!)

Oh my goodness...it's friday and I can't honestly tell you where this whole week went! But to give you an idea, I'll give you a run down of my day yesterday....

I left home at 9am to head to the clinic. I stopped at staples to get a file folder, and then made my way over to Northeast Massage Therapy. My 10am client was really great, mother of 3 school-aged kids who just needed a massage and to 'zone out' for a while. I can sure relate!

I didn't have another client scheduled until 6:15, pm...so I left the clinic, came home, stopped on the way to mail a package back to a customer via UPS, and spent the next 4 hours working on another customer quilt, finished that at 5pm, headed back to the massage clinic to meet up with my last client of the day....finished that massage at 7:15, locked up, and went to taco bell with one of the other therapists who had also just finished up for the day...wolfed down a chicken quesadilla, came home, threw myself in the hottub for a soak, and then straight to bed. If there is any wondering on why my blog isn't being updated daily recently, this is why!

However, today is alot lighter. I'm working from home just being 'on call' in case someone needs to call me in.

Every once in a while I get a special client with special requests and today I'm working on one of those! It's lovely! Elizabeth had beautiful embroidered blocks of teacups with flowers in them....and she asked if I would set them into a quilt for her. She sent fabric, and the pattern, and today is the perfect day for me to start sewing the blocks! The embroidered blocks are going to be set with alternate basket blocks made from the fat eigth assortment she sent me....it sure has a spring feel to it and I am so anxious for spring!

I tried to find a pic of the whole quilt online, but I couldn't find the link.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

I was looking for anything yawn.jpg to demonstrate how I feel, and this is definately it!

I got an email today from Sandra, checking up on me because I haven't posted in a few days! Oh, I've been SO not posting! Thanks for noticing Sandra! Really, everything is okay, it's just been a crazy week...

A crazy week with *gasp* No personal sewing time in it for me! I've been too tired at night to even pick up a needle....during the day I've been running to the massage clinic, or working on customer quilts here, and other than occassional shots at customer quilts where I am doing a design I really like and can't wait to share......I don't focus my blog on my customer stuff as much as on my own quilting. So when my OWN quilting doesn't happen..neither does the blog entry!

It isn't that I meant to keep everyone in the dark, it was just a pretty mundane but crazy week.

Friday evening I went to Myrtle Beach. DH and his die-hard triathalon buddies were running the Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon (13 miles) on saturday morning. Thursday and Friday were beautiful here weather-wise, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as you go somewhere and need it nice on Saturday, it turns NASTY!!

I had taken my massage table with the hopes of setting up at the finish line at the race, but when I checked the night before, "free" massages were being provided by a massage school (good for them, bad for me) and I wasn't going to stand out there in the cold and wind and massage for free...been there done that! So I stayed in at the friend's house we were staying at and enjoyed the quiet, even if it was blowing outside. I did get out and walked the beach a bit later on Saturday morning. Still wished I had my ear warmers! I do love the beach....even blowing and windy, there is a certain peace to it.

Today I played the organ at church, came home and loaded a customer's raffle quilt for prize poodles. Show poodles. Too cute...the blocks were all compass stars, the round center of each block was a different pic of a poodle going through it's show trials..jumping things, prancing about, too cute! I finished that a bit a go and then laid down for a 'short' nap that lasted 2 1/2 hours! It's now 6pm and I don't know exactly where the day went, but I think it was the nap I needed to get me back on track after a long week.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

I have a gift challenged DH. There is no other way to say it....when they handed out imagination for gifts, or protocol for what does NOT make a good gift, he failed miserably.

One year it was a gas clothes dryer.Yes, we needed a dryer, but why does that make a good Christmas gift for me?? Doesn't the clothes dryer service the whole family?? Something that epitomizes WORK to a woman just does not make a good personal gift. From that point on it was a rule that small appliances, vacuums, cleaning things, even cooking things (no toaster, no sandwhich maker, no fryer)were only okay to give on non-holidays.

This slipped his mind a couple years ago when for my birthday he brought home...unwrapped in a CVS pharmacy bag with the receipt in it no less...one of those "as seen on tv" pasta pots, the kind with holes in the lids for draining. Two pots actually, you got a bonus small one for free :c| cheap aluminium, the first time he used it (I have yet to use it) the paint started coming off the outside. This was NOT a good birthday.

I ranted and raved privately on this birthday, I was so frustrated.....I whined all over a small quilter's email list I am on, and for my birthday, they ALL sent me pasta recipes with the heading of "put THIS in your (*&@#& pasta pot!". It was too hilarious and made a difficult moment much better.

So now....DH is nearly afraid to try anything without getting the okay from me first, and that is hard, because I can't usually think of anything off the top of my head what I want. It takes the suprise out of it, you know?

The same thing happened the other night..."What do you want for Valentine's Day?" *shaking head* (this is after...what? a month of jewelry commercials on tv??)

So yesterday I go into the clinic to help work the front desk and see if I get any walk in massage appts. (I sold a couple gift certificates and those will be my new clients, so this is a good start!) and this little old black man is going door to door offering on-site car detailing while you wait. BINGO! My car has not been detailed since I bought it 3 years ago. I try to keep it clean, but as far as really getting in there and detailing it.....who has time for that?

So I called up DH and said....I know what you are getting me for Valentine's Day....My car detailed! *hehe*

He did a great job too! He spent 4 1/2 hours working on cleaning and detailing my car! Wow. It was SO GREAT. So even though there was no imagination to it on DH's part, I am tickled with my car and the mobile detailing guy. I think it's something I'd recommend to other women out there who don't know what to give their DHs for valentine's or for their birthdays or for father's day etc....who would have thought..car detailing?!I'm thinking that while sitting at the clinic in between appts is going to be a good time to take some UFO handwork project to work on. Maybe my hexagons...it's a small project? It has set untouched for probably...2 years? I just need to throw it in the car so I'll have it with me....

Sunday, February 12, 2006

A friend of mine has her blog at Orientation::Quilter (you can see her over there to the right in my sidebar :c)

She has done a great job with a pictoral tutorial on how to clean and oil your machine (hers is a bernina) in between getting your machine serviced at the shop. It's WONDERFUL! I had been doing SOME of these steps, but she shows things that I didn't know about that makes me want to go right over and give my bernie a little clean right away!

Your machine may be a different brand, and parts may be different, so check with your own service place on how you can best keep your machine clean and oiled in between having it serviced.On the personal front..it's not a very quilty weekend! (And yes, that big customer sampler quilt is getting there, just a bit over one row left) As far as my own stuff goes that is. Today I printed up some business cards and dropped them off at the bike shop that is up the road from the massage clinic. My DH bikes with a team of guys from there, and I put on the back of the card that they can get $10 off their first massage by mentioning Summit Cycles when they call me. It might bring me some business, at least it is worth the effort to try right?

Saturday, February 11, 2006

After posting the pics of Jason and Shanon, I decided to see if I can figure out how to make this scanner work! One pic I have on the mirror to my dresser is this pic of Jason when he was 2 1/2..riding his bike. He was such a cutie! Blonde whispy hair...who would have guessed he would turn out so dark colored as he grew :c)

I look at the differences between this pic and the one of him with Shanon, and I see the same eyes...my baby really IS inside this wonderful young man..he's still in there!

Here are a couple pics....my eldest son Jason is 22, and lives in Arlington TX where he works at a Johnny Carino's restaurant running the kitchen staff. I'm so proud of him. It wasn't easy going through HIS teenage years either, but as I see the wonderful young man he has grown into, I keep holding my heart and hoping that the younger one will find his way too!

Since Jason lives in TX, and we are in SC, we don't see each other very often, but the phone calls are frequent. I think that was the best thing....when we moved here due to a job transfer, Jason was already on his own and living with some friends sharing an apartment. He learned quickly what it was like not to have us so close, and communication became very important. He called this week, and he and his girlfriend Shanon are coming for a visit! They will be here March 14th and stay about 4 days. I am a nervous mother! He is been dating Shanon seriously for a couple years now, and I've never met her in person! I've talked to her on the phone several times, and she is really a sweetheart, but this is the first time as a mother that I am meeting the serious girlfriend!

I definately plan on getting some family portraits taken while they are here. We haven't done that in years either. It's time. It's time to put it down on canvas for posterity!

It's a rainy wet day here in the south east. Snow could be coming, but probably more to the higher upper country of SC, not so much near us, though ice is a threat. Today I plan to work some more on the customer's sampler, and yes I did get to half way yesterday! Then there is the tax stuff looming....

I went last night and bought a new hp printer/copier/scanner/fax machine from Sam's club. I don't know how to work it all yet! I have wanted a scanner, but I haven't had time to learn all the ins and outs of it yet. We got it networked so we can also print from the laptop downstairs that is wireless. It's very odd to be up here typing away at the upstairs computer and all of a sudden have the printer go off next to me! *LOL* If I can get as much done as I want to on the customer quilt today..I plan on some more hand quilting on the amish crazy bars tonight. I didn't touch that last night at all, by night fall I was just tired enough to crawl into bed, watch a couple episodes of something and fell asleep in the middle of whatever...sometimes it feels good to just do that!

Friday, February 10, 2006

I started the quilting while watching CSI last night. Of all the CSIs out there, I really like the Las Vegas one the best. The other two (NY and Miami) just have charactors that I can't get into. I try. But sometimes if a charactor is too weird, I just can't.....as is the guy who plays on the Miami one. Horatio? He just gives me the creeps! *LOL*

It was a chilly night, perfect for a fire in the fireplace....and away I went on quilting the amish crazy bars. I got 4 blocks and part of the sashing done. I'm doing the blocks by quilting whatever wherever. The sashings are getting a twisted rope/cable. Pain in the butt to quilt though, it isn't continuous! And you either have to end your thread with every 'S' curve, or carry it under, about two needle lengths to where the next one starts, and I'm not sure how I feel about carrying the thread through that length. Any ideas on that?I need to be a good girl today and focus on this large customer quilt that is in the machine. It's a sampler in brights with alot of white open area, and I'm doing a fancy curling amish feather design in there, and tiny micro stippling behind. If there is ever a terrible time for tennis elbow/lateral epicondylitis to flare up..it is when doing tiny micro stippling! The pic shows part of the top border..I've done the microstippling on the top of the plumes, I just need to come back the other direction and do the bottom..then I can advance and actually get started on the BLOCKS! I'd like to see this quilt 1/2 done today. That's my goal...I'll let you know if I got there or not!

I like jazz music and old standards...the MP3 player has been really fun because I have all my old standards set on 'random play'...what fun to listen to these oldies, singing along and quilting away!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

I finished the binding and hanging sleeve on the shoo flies quilt last night! hoorayyyyy!! I really like how it turned out.

I hand quilted it with brown thread, which looked really vintage wtih it. I like the thread color. However, the quilting isn't that easy to see unless you side light the thing, so that is what I had to do with the pics..

Today I met with a couple of the other therapists at the place I am going into. I think it is going to be great! I paid my rent for the second half of feb, and I'll officially start accepting clients there on the 15th of Feb. I was given a "key to the establishment". My own key!My friend Lori and I drove down town so she could show me where to apply for a business license and go to the zoning thing to have the fire marshall come out and check my space and give it the a-okay. I'm in! I'm in business! I think it is going to be great to balance out the quilting. Lori and I ran around and had lunch and visited...and then this afternoon she has 2 clients back to back. She said it was the perfect schedule, and it sure sounds like it to me. I can quilt the mornings, and have clients in the afternoons, or the other way around, have clients in the mornings, and quilt in the afternoons. It's going to give me the "out of the house" time that I need to make me really love the time when I can just be here and quilt....

The next quilt I am starting to quilt on is one of the amishy ones that I basted the last basting-go-round. It sure is nice to have them just ready to be picked up and worked on. This one is a strippy quilt, and I think I'm going to quilt cables in the plain strippies between the pieced sections. feathers in the outer border are calling to me. I love how amish solids look once the stitches are taken, it just sculpts the quilt!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

I got an email from one of our blog watchers..(Hi Beverly!) and she directed me to this quilt on ebay!

All I can say (with my tongue hanging out of my mouth!!) is I wish there were more pictures, better pictures...I'd love to see this one up close! It looks SO GREAT from what I can see...which isn't much.Too much fun to look at, isn't it? I wonder what this person was thinking and how this quilt came about....

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Someone sent me an email this morning with this pic attached..this is all of us on the front steps of the retreat house....we flagged down some workers who were working on a house across the street to take a pic.. :c) And you can't hardly see me, I'm in the way back row :cÞ

Today at least has the sun shining here! Much much better than the windy icy rain from yesterday! I'm back into the real world, fighting with breaking threads and ornery tension on the back of a customer's quilt. What a rude awakening after having so much fun this weekend! *LOL*

Monday, February 06, 2006

I'm back from retreat in Hilton Head. Weather was CRAPPY!!! Cold and rainy and too blowy to even want to be on the beach, even though the beach was across the street, just behind the row of houses. Beautiful from inside, but you just didn't want to be out there. Bummer. I love going to Hilton Head!

I drove home this morning, raining all the way...just spitty light stuff, it wasn't coming down very hard. Its about 2 1/2 hours drive, so I am listening to a book on CD, Dan Brown's Angels & Demons. So far I like it as much as DaVinci Code......I'm about 3 CD's into it.The Jinny Beyer convention was pretty tame this year. I didn't find much to buy, except one piece of a striped backing that I really liked (and needed). I took what was left on the bolt..6 yards. We also went to the quilt shop in town and all I found that I needed was 2 brown FQ's, a shirting FQ, and a couple stencils that I liked. Pretty tame spending huh? The theme was log cabin quilts, and there were a few antique ones that I really liked at the show, so these are pics of those.

The house we stayed at was lovely. There were 15 of us in this one HUGE beach house. I was lucky....I brought an airmattress and electric blanket and my own bedding, and I made my room in the master bedroom closet (which was huge, and directly connected to the even huge-er (is that a word?) master bath! It was too funny, there were jokes about me "coming out of the closet" all weekend :c)

Unfortuneately, there is NOT a view of my wonderful master bedroom closet..*hehe* But there IS a pic of theMaster Bath Massge Room!

I set up our "Hilton Head Retreat Massage" room in the master bath. It was great...sky lights, away from the noise....the table was set up in the middle of the bathroom and I could walk around it and have room to spare. It was perfect. I did 4 massages for pay during the weekend so I feel pretty official. :c)This is a pic of MYRTLE. Myrtle is our mascot, and come sometime after 5pm....I lost my bra, and myrtle was discovered wearing it..*hehe* Myrtle was also our menu hostess..the menu for each meal was taped to myrtle so guests would know what was on the menu for the evening....

I did work on the brown and pink Dear Jane.....I finished row "K" and now have row "L" and "M" to finish. I got a couple blocks done in row "L"...but petered out on it. I spent some evening time hand quilting on my shooflies....one more evening and I should be ready for the binding. there is just a bit over one fan left to quilt! It is getting close!

I stopped on the way home from Hilton Head in Columbia to check out the massage clinic where I hope to be sharing room rent with my friend Lori. The place looks awesome! She has the room set up really nice, and we get along so well I know it will be great to work with her, or is it work "around" her, since we will be sharing room rent and when one of us is there, the other one won't be! I tracked the mileage on the way home from the clinic to my house and it's about 22 miles. I guess that is about average for most people who commute, and I really don't mind the drive. (especially with good books on CD in the car!) I'll go in later this week and meet with the other therapists there.

My state license came in the mail while I was gone. I am officialy SC # 4623! Easy to remember since 23 is half of 46 ;) I need to get my diploma and my licence, etc framed to hang on the wall of my massage room :c)

Would you believe I have a guild meeting tonight and I have to be there? I've got to leave in less than an hour and I am SO pooped!

Friday, February 03, 2006

I'm just about packed! I've got some last minute things to do, but I'll be leaving in about an hour so I wanted to make one more post before I go.

A customer just left from picking up her quilt, and the story behind this quilt is kind of neat!

Carol was given 15 of these dresden plate blocks from the 1930's. (I believe they had belonged to the great-aunt of the person that gave them to her, they had been passed down.) Some of them were completed, some of them still had the button hole stitch to be done on them, and some of them were in partial assembly. She finished what she could, but she was in dire need of ideas on what to do with 15 blocks! Certain settings just wouldn't work and she wanted something that would really be accurate for the time period.

One day while she was bringing me another quilt to quilt for her, she brought her blocks, explained the situation, and I knew I had just the answer! I had a collection of authentic (not repros) 30's fabrics that she could use to make ONE MORE BLOCK and then set them the traditional way she wanted. We were even able to match that solid orangey red for the center of the block! She found the perfect sashing fabric, and then tied it all together clear to the edge by bordering it with muslin that matched the blocks. It turned out just wonderful! I quilted feather sprays in the corners of the blocks, surrounded by tiny stippling to really bring them out. The plate blades are outline quilted, with another feather flower quilted in the red centers of the block.

I'm usually not in love with 30's prints and 30's quilts...but this one has maverick issues! Not all the blocks have the same number of blades! they are different widths, some fat, and some skinnier, I think they fudged with them to get them flat enough to lie down instead of being volcanoes..*LOL* The plates are NOT centered in the blocks, and they are all rotated a bit different which made putting the feather plumes in the corners of the blocks a bit of a challenge. Each feather plume is a bit different too, because I was just quilting to fill up the space. And I like it! It gives the ey e something different to look at and the dresden plates (which is not one of my fave patterns either...repetition wise) seem to be spinning and doing their own thing with their own personalities. the centers of the plates are not completely round! some are egg shaped. It was all these wonderful inconsistencies that made this a fun quilt to quilt on!

Not to mention that I LOVE the look of quilting on plain muslin (and the solid red for that matter) Nothing is as timeless as that.it shows the quilting SO well! little white on white prints that are out now just don't have that same look or feel. I don't know why they are so popular with quilters! Give me plain old muslin any day, it is wonderful to quilt and fits the quilting 'genre' that I like most! (and second comes shirtings if it has to be a print at all :c)

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Tomorrow is my Hilton Head Retreat with the Carolina Pines Quilters. It's the same weekend/same place as the Jinny Beyer Convention, which makes it fun. There is a free quilt show of Jinny's quilts along with other guest artists. Usually there have been some really wonderful antique quilts at the show too. It's small, but great for getting away from the sewing machine for an hour or two. There is also a vendor's shop, and it's alot of fun to rummage through. Sometimes the sale fabrics are pretty good. Last year I thought I was so brilliant in using birthday money to buy a TJ Lane silver thimble.....which I lost. :c( No more 'spensive thimbles for THIS lady! Not unless I can have it physically attached to my body! And don't tell me I need a cage or a necklace...I hate those. I tried a chatalaine and all that crap around my neck drove me crazy. So..I'm back to cheapy thimbles by the dozen :c)I'm trying to really gear myself up for this retreat! But so far on the "wanting to sew" scale...it is just not happening. *LOL* WHY?! Because. I am working on that (*@#$(*& Brown and pink DJ thing. I told myself after the last retreat that if I were to sew one block a day, I'd be able to get another row done before this retreat. Did I? Nope. I've done four..count them....F-O-U-R measly blocks. In three weeks! Granted, I have been cramming for taking my boards, and all this other crap going on with Jeff that is making it impossible for me to want to focus on eensy teensy precise (why did I think precise was ever fun?) pieces. But I will persevere...I might only finish ONE ROW at retreat, but part of me wants to finish it, just so I can handquilt fans all over the whole thing and put the DJ perfection world into coronary *hehe* The quilting part will be FUN!

I'm in the midst of plodding through the last row of dresden plates on a customer's quilt. I need to finish it today so I can go tomorrow with a clear conscience. Feathers in the corners of the blocks and the center circle, and tiny microstippling around everything. And it's a huge quilt. I can make it. I can quilt the last row of blocks.....I will conquer!!

I am also going to be the 'resident massage therapist' at the retreat. I'm taking my table and my gear and offering a retreat special price....if it goes well, maybe I WON'T finish that dang row K of the brown and pink DJ quilt *hehehe*

A while back, I had a pic with part of this valentine's table topper peeking out. Some of you asked to see it. I decided to wait until it was closer to valentine's day so I could post something valentine-y :c)

This quilt was made from a swap of 6" valentine themed blocks I did with an online quiltlist. It's a pretty tame sampler, but I really like how it turned out, and it was a good place for me to use up the last of (hooray!) that red with white hearts print left from my early 1980's quilting days. Those little dot hearts came in EVERY color..remember them? I think they are all about gone now, though sometimes they still show up in the string bin and smaller scrap bits.

I've done it. I've delivered my first resume and coverletter to a spa that is opening up in the new Gold's Gym complex near me. I had dropped by there yesterday just to see when they would be open. The owner happened to be there, and I talked to him a minute and he said to drop a resume by. So guess what I spent the best part of yesterday afternoon composing? Thank heaven for templates in word/works that have everything in the right format and you just have to fill in the blanks. Still...it was kind of intimidating to me. I haven't worked for anyone else in 16 years. Yes, I've had my own home based businesses, but they are in an area that doesn't apply for the massage position that I am looking for. So there is the worry that I still don't have enough "massage" experience to be considered for the job, but heck, I'm trying right? And now that the cover letter and resume are composed....I can alter the cover letter to suit other places I can apply to, be it a chiropractic office or whatever, and that weight of having to compose them is off my shoulders. The only thing left is business cards, but I need my license # on them and I haven't received my packet from the state yet. That should come in the next week or so.

Things here at home are still at a stand off. Son is avoiding me, and I'm staying out of his way. I've tried so hard to open up communication, talk about school, about friends, about whatever, and he refuses to let me in or to participate so I'm throwing in the flag for right now. He'll talk when he's ready to talk, and no amount of my trying to draw him out is going to work at this point.